Torchwood LA: Family
by Independent Dude
Summary: Sequel to "Torchwood: LA." Gwen Cooper, Jack Bauer and the Torchwood Seven team take on an old enemy. Rated T for violence and language. Torchwood/24/Dr. Who/House crossover.
1. The Easy Part

Torchwood LA: Family

Chapter 1: The Easy Part

_**Doot…deet…doot…deet…….**_

_**Previously, in the Torchwood Seven universe…**_

**JACK BAUER**

"Jack Bauer. Formerly commander of CTU Los Angeles. Decorated for numerous actions taken in defense of United States interests. Arrested for murder of Russian ambassador at New York peace conference." She closed the folder and put it back in the case. "Yes, you'll do," she said.

"My name is Jack Bauer. I am the second in command of this facility"…Adam became agitated at that, to the point of breaking his slouch and sitting up to the table. "'This facility?' Why don't you call it what it is? It's Torchwood! Torchwood!"

"I mean, when you got to Camp Bravo and realized that your granddaughter was not there," continued Gwen… "Of course, the irony is, if your daughter and her family had not been in hiding and using hastily constructed aliases, Teri would never have been in that school to be picked up in the first place…" "Damn you!" said Jack.

**GWEN COOPER**

"Gwen Cooper," said the woman, offering her hand. "I'm with Torchwood."

Gwen was walking out of the conference room when her cellphone rang. She picked it out of her holder and flipped it open sharply. "What!" she demanded. "Hey, it's me," said Rhys, her husband and best friend. "Hey," said Gwen back…she and Rhys had made a joint resolution long ago not to take out their frustrations on each other.

"And Gwen. It was one of her people in Cardiff who figured out how to drive off the 456, you know. Their own government was trying to take them down, and yet they kept fighting to the end. "

**TORCHWOOD SEVEN**

"Welcome to Torchwood Seven," said Gwen.

Gwen sat back and explained. "Torchwood was commissioned by Queen Victoria in the 19th Century to defend the Empire from certain…extraordinary threats."

"Jack Bauer," said Ryan by way of introduction, "our chief medical officer, Dr. Greg House."

_**The following takes place twenty months after the events of **_**24: Day Eight **_**and fourteen months after day five of **_**Torchwood: Children of Earth. **_**Events occur in an alternate continuity which does not include **_**Torchwood: Miracle Day.**

_**All characters are the property of their respective authors. All original characters and events which occur in this story are mine.**_

Jack Bauer rounded the corner, nearly tripped over the curb, and just had to stop. He put a hand on the streetlamp and leaned on it, breathing hard. He tried to look to see where the alien had gone, but the thing was just too damn fast, and it was already out of sight.

Gwen caught up to Jack. She had to stop and catch her breath, too.

"Damn," she panted. "I hate Nostrovites."

Jack nodded his assent. He couldn't do much more at the present, as he was still sucking wind. He put his hands on his knees and grimaced as the denim aggravated the wound on his left palm.

Gwen saw it. "Jack, it didn't bite you, did it?" she asked, concern creeping into her voice.

"No," he said. "I never got within twenty-five feet of it." He held his hand out under the light. "I got this when I tried to hop a fence and landed in somebody's driveway." Bits of gravel were still visible in the wound, which was consistent with a scrape.

"Oh, so that was you," said Gwen, sounding very much relieved. Now that she thought of it, she realized that the howl she had heard a few streets back could very easily have been her second in command dropping an F-bomb.

"Yeah," said Jack, straightening up. "What happens if they bite you?"

"The male Nostrovite keeps fertilized eggs in pouches in its mouth, and then implants them in a host," she explained. She pantomimed a hand bursting out of her stomach. "Ever seen _Alien_?"

"You're kidding," said Jack.

Their conversation was interrupted by Lois on the radio. "Hey guys," she said, "we're getting a new set of 911 calls, heading away from your location and progressing due northwest. All trespassing or prowler reports…definitely your target."

"Intercept them," ordered Gwen. "I don't want LAPD in the line of fire when we take this thing down." She looked around. "Where the hell's Adam with the truck?"

"Sorry," said Adam, and on cue, he came barreling through an intersection in their black SUV. They had gotten out of the truck when their quarry had led them into residential neighborhoods. "I was monitoring rift activity," he continued, "and there is another Event happening right now ten kilometers to our northwest."

Bauer and Gwen jumped in before Adam had even stopped, and the truck took off to the northwest.

_**Doot…deet…doot…deet…**_

"Mommy! Mommy! There's somebody outside!"

"Teri, shush!" said Kim Bauer. Her six-year-old daughter had been saying the same thing over and over again for the past five minutes.

"But mommy—"

"Get back to bed!" Kim was tired. Her husband was working another late shift at the hospital, and that had left her in charge of child care for the evening.

Just when she'd thought she'd won the battle of wills with her daughter, Kim heard a loud metal crash coming from the backyard.

"Mommmyyy!"

"Teri, go back to your room and close the door NOW!" said Kim. As soon as her daughter had closed the door, Kim whirred into action. She went out into the garage and grabbed Stephen's aluminum softball bat, charging out the back door of the garage even as she heard more sounds of movement coming from the area of their shed.

It was when she was outside, in the dark, creeping towards the source of the noise, that her vestigial CTU mindset faded and Kim's brain had a chance to rationally process her actions. She had rushed outside without turning on the back floodlight, as fast as possible, in hopes of catching the trespasser unaware, rather than scaring him away. She had also grabbed a baseball bat, rather than a more useful weapon such as her gun – though, to be fair, the gun she had carried with her the whole time they were on the run in Texas was currently locked in a child-proof gun safe at the other end of the house.

_This is just some homeless guy,_ thought Kim. _Threat assessment: low._ She decided to go for scaring the intruder away. As she approached the corner of the metal shed, she rapped the bat against it and shouted out a warning.

There was just enough illumination from her neighbors' porch light for her to see the man come around the corner and charge at her. She swung and missed, making another loud bang as she put a dent in the shed door. The man came right up at her and, for a moment, in the pale light, his face looked like something out of a vampire movie. She froze, in the middle of bringing the bat around for another swing, for a second, but that was just enough time for the man to bite her arm. The pain jolted her back to reality, and she swung down hard, connecting with the top of the man's skull. He gave an unearthly howl, and then quickly ran off through the Jacksons' azaleas.

"Stupid…junkie…_asshole!_" Kim shouted after the retreating prowler, throwing the bat after him as punctuation. As she cradled her injured forearm, she wondered what the hell his problem had been.

_**Doot…deet…doot…deet…**_

With Adam swerving around corners as he drove, Jack and Gwen had to work to switch out their pistols for submachine guns.

"How far, Adam?" asked Gwen.

"We're almost to the zenith of the rift," said Adam. "Two minutes out."

Jack finished checking his weapon. "You said these things were intelligent," he looked over to his superior. "It can shape-shift…why doesn't it do that? It could have lost us at the bus station."

"The males are feral," Gwen answered.

"And this one is in 'Daddy Dearest' mode," piped in House on the com link. "Pregnancy can do strange things to animal behavior. Oh, don't let it bite you—"

"It didn't bite me, dammit!" said Jack. He shifted around in his seat, ready to jump out when they reached the engagement zone. "We're sure it's headed here?" he asked, as Adam turned into a driveway and began driving up to a school. As far as he was concerned, the whole business about spacetime rifts, and Los Angeles being connected to a rift originating from Wales that could let aliens travel to our world, was all superscience that was best left to the technologically inclined Torchwood members, while he concentrated on the security aspect of the job.

(When asked if he knew why southern California had so many more earthquakes than were predicted by almost all geological models, Bauer had naively said "plate tectonics." Much mirth had been had at his expense.)

"They can sense the rifts," said Gwen. "And they can sense their native environment, on the other side of the rifts. That's why we're not going to approach it head-on. It may go through the rift on its own, and that would be ideal. We don't want to scare it away from the rift by making premature contact…"

Gwen's words were cut off by a loud bump. Gwen and Jack were thrown around the back seat again. Adam cursed, then shouted to the team, "I think I ran it over!"

As Mitchell stopped the truck, Gwen and Jack were on the move, filing out the door opposite the side of the impact. They came around the front of the vehicle and saw the Nostrovite limping away in the other direction. There was no time to orient themselves to the location of the rift opening; they had no idea whether the alien was trying to find the rift, or escape the vicinity. They opened fire.

Jack's bullets hit, but the Nostrovite did not go down. In fact, it merely adjusted its course toward a grove of trees. In the dark, Gwen could not tell if the grove was part of a larger wooded tract or not. She could only see that they were losing containment on the creature. She fired again, this time two short bursts. The Nostrovite fell forward, definitely slowed. She held her fire as Bauer ran up and finished the alien off with two shots to the back.

Gwen met up with Jack. They stood looking down at the alien. Then they began to look around, to make sure their chase had not been seen by anyone.

_**Doot…deet…doot…deet…**_

"I'm taking you to the hospital," said Stephen, as he finished bandaging his wife's arm. "We need to run some tests for infection, put you on antibiotics…"

"I'm not going to the stupid hospital," said Kim. "He bit me; we didn't share needles," she added. "You can't get AIDS from biting."

"No, but there are a lot of other things you can get!" insisted Stephen. "Hepatitis, for one. Not to mention the chance of infection to the wound."

"I'll go to the clinic tomorrow," compromised Kim. "I'll have Dr. Thomas look at the bite."

"What were you thinking?" Stephen all but shouted. "He could have had a gun!" The stress of finding out what had happened that night was wearing him down.

"I don't know! I just reacted," Kim answered. Her adrenaline rush was coming back.

"You 'just reacted?'" said Stephen. "Someone tries to break into the shed, and you leave Teri alone and rush out into the night to brain them with a baseball bat? My God, Kim! Who are you, your father?"

Kim did not respond. Instead, she turned and went up the stairs to the bedroom. Stephen belatedly realized that he had crossed the line, and tried to mumble an apology. All he heard in response was a slamming door.

_**Doot…deet…doot…deet…**_

House was standing at the autopsy table as the team filed into the medical bay. The dead Nostrovite was laid out on it, the doctor having already begun his post mortem. Bauer took up a position close to the head, but it was Gwen whom House addressed.

"Just as you feared," the doctor said. "The egg sacks have been emptied."

Bauer looked at where House was pointing. He could see the slits cut into the creature's cheeks. A small amount of black, jelly-like substance – not unlike caviar, he thought – was visible near the slits. But it was only a small amount.

"Does that mean what I think it means?" asked Jack.

House nodded. "It means someone is about to have a very bad day."

_**Doot…deet…doot…deet…**_

Almost immediately after passing through the vortex, the Nostrovite elder realized that something had gone wrong with the transdimensional crossing. She barely had time to process that thought when her young companion's telepathic death scream hit her full force. The psychic blast was strong enough to knock her off of her feet. However, it stopped just as soon as it started, and the Elder was able to pick herself up. From the brevity of the scream, she knew that her friend's death had been quick, most likely the quick death one received from materializing deep underground.

She paused to get a telepathic "sniff" of the alien world on which she now found herself. Once again her sense of balance was assailed by the multitude of signals she was forced to take in, but this time she held her footing on the strange, black artificial rock with which the inhabitants of this planet had seen fit to cover the ground. She could not sense any others of her species, not even the male – her friend's mate - whom they had chased through the rift. But she could sense _young_, forming and growing inside of some unknown alien host. The Elder stretched tall, trying to hone her delicate fix on the larvae she had sworn to help protect and raise to maturity.

"Hey, bitch!" came a voice. "This is my corner!"

The Elder turned to see what had made the sound: one of the bipedal natives of this planet was walking menacingly toward her. The Elder's telepathic senses were not yet acclimated enough to her new surroundings to translate the creature's words, but she knew a territorial challenge when she heard it.

Fortunately, the primitive electric light source suspended above the Elder was shining at such an angle as to not allow the native to see that the Nostrovite bore very little resemblance to the natives of this planet. Consequently, she was able to allow the native to get very close to her before she struck. As her camouflaging reflex kicked in and she began to take on the appearance of the now deceased native, it occurred to the Elder that she had not eaten all day.

_**Doot…deet…doot…deet…**_


	2. The Reveal

Torchwood LA: Family

Chapter 2: The Reveal

(**A/N**: I gave Kim's husband a last name. It was just too hard to write around without doing that.)

Nobody was there to meet Jack when he arrived at the Torchwood base the following morning. He was not surprised, as he was running a little tired after the previous night's action. He checked the conference room, but it was empty, so he went looking for Gwen in her office. As he reached for the door, he heard something he was not expecting.

"A baby? Seriously? You brought a baby into Torchwood?" he said incredulously, as he stepped into the office and took in the scene. Gwen was there, and so was her husband, Rhys. A baby basket was on the desk, but the basket's occupant was in her mother's arms, being rocked back to sleep.

"Oh hello, Jack," said Gwen, as Rhys took the baby. "The stupid daycare is shut down, some kind of flu outbreak," she explained. "And Rhys has a job interview."

"Gwen, can I talk to you for a minute?" asked Jack, motioning to outside the office.

"What is it, Jack?" Gwen asked, as she followed him out the office.

As soon as he got outside the office, he half shut the door. "I don't think we should have Rhys here running around in a top secret facility. He is not cleared."

Gwen started to become indignant. This was not the first time Jack had brought this matter up. "He's not 'running around,' Jack," she said sternly. "He's not some child."

"Hey!" said Rhys, who had heard the conversation and come out into the hall. He turned to Jack. "Hey, I've known about Torchwood since the beginning. I _worked_ with these people during the Crisis. I've seen more aliens than you, bub!"

"Rhys, not this. Not now," said Gwen. In a huff, Rhys turned and went back to into the office to check on the baby. As he left, Gwen turned back to Jack.

"That's true, you know," she said. "When we were going to expose the British government's complicity in the 456 Crisis, he was our insurance. And he_ has_ seen more aliens than you."

"I understand that," said Jack, "but I'm just not comfortable with him having access to this facility –"

"But nothing," said Gwen. "Rhys does not have to prove himself to me," she said quietly. "I trust him. I ask that you do the same." She paced across the hall. "Besides," she said, "it's not like he's a member of Torchwood or anything. I'm not giving him access to missions, or giving him a gun. I'm not stupid!"

"Hey! I heard that!" said Rhys from inside the office.

_**Doot…deet…doot…deet…**_

Kim woke up and immediately regretted the move. She felt tired, she felt sluggish, she felt…heavy. After her attempts at willing herself back to sleep failed, she finally gave in and pushed the covers aside.

Her scream filled the house.

_** Doot…deet…doot…deet…**_

Ten minutes later, Jack and Gwen were in the conference room leading the morning briefing.

"Okay, people," said Gwen. "We have a long day ahead of us. Where are we on the location of the Nostrovite larvae?" Gwen's professional demeanor gave her enough gravitas to command the attention of her team, even with Anwen's baby basket sitting on the table next to her.

"DNA won't help us," spoke up House. "There was human tissue left in Daddy's teeth, but some kind of digestive enzyme mangled the chromosomes. There's no way to make a match, even if our victim has a criminal record and is in one of the databases. The best I can tell you is, I'm _fairly_ certain I didn't see any Y-chromosomes. Sorry."

"Our victim is female," said Jack. "That's a start. Lois? Adam? What do you have?"

Lois turned on one of the wall monitors, which showed a street map. "Here's our best estimate of the path our Nostrovite took last night." A red line appeared. On either side of the line was an orange-shaded area. "We know that it didn't attack anyone in the commercial zone, here, or else there would have been paramedics called," Lois said as she highlighted part of the orange area and made it vanish. "That leaves this residential area, here," and she zoomed the display in to the neighborhood Jack and Gwen had chased the creature through the previous evening. "We're analyzing all of the 911 calls made from here, including the ones made this morning, to see if anyone is reporting being bitten."

"I've also put a spybot out on the web," said Adam. "It's hacking through all of the admissions records to the nearest hospitals" – he pointed out four spots close to the orange area – "and looking for keywords that match what Gwen told us about Nostrovite gestation: 'unexplained pregnancy,' 'abdominal pain,' 'moving,' and the like. It will keep doing that throughout the day, in case our victim's symptoms haven't presented themselves yet."

"Oh, they will," said Gwen, quietly rocking Anwen's basket.

"Adam, can you expand the search?" asked Bauer. He got up and joined Mitchell at the monitor. "These hospitals you've targeted are all in poor neighborhoods," he said. "The houses we passed last night were upper-middle class. That means that the people who live there will have their own transportation; they won't call an ambulance, Lois. And they're not going to go to a run-down hospital in the middle of the ghetto when they can drive just a little further to feel safe parking their car." He used the smart board to widen the view, and marked six more hospitals. "Include these."

"I agree with Bauer," said House, summing up the feeling of the room. "Healthy or not, people are snobs."

"Yes, good thinking Jack," said Gwen. "Adam, one last thing: any further rift activity?"

Adam paused as he changed the monitor's display. "There was an opening, right after we knocked off last night. Lasted just over two seconds. Coincident with a trembler, 1.9 on the Richter scale." The room was silent. They knew that meant someone or something had materialized into solid rock. "Puts the mass of our unlucky traveller at about 150-250 kilograms."

"The Nostrovite's mate," said Gwen. "Good riddance," she said, and turned back to rocking her baby to sleep.

_**Doot…deet…doot…deet…**_

Dr. Nathan Styles rubbed a hand across his face and scratched his beard. "Stephen," he asked, "are you _sure_ she's not pregnant? Didn't you tell me just the other day that you two were trying again?"

Dr. Stephen Barnes got angry at the way his colleague seemed to dismiss his wife's malady. "Yes, but she took a home pregnancy test four weeks ago; came back negative. And even if we had conceived right after that, which we _didn't_," he stressed, "we both know there's no way in hell Kim could get this far along in one month –"

"Okay, okay, I know," said Nate. He did another one of his trademark rub-scratches while trying to think. "You say she got bitten by a person."

"Yeah. Some junkie, tried to break into our shed last night."

"Could be an infection. Started in her arm, spread to her abdomen and caused swelling. There's several bacteria that are common in Third World countries that could cause this, and it's possible one might have made it to LA, but I've never seen an infection spread this quickly." He walked over to the doorway, to peek into the hospital room to see Kim. She was still in her wheelchair, still looking very pregnant. "I can start some antibiotics, see how she responds. We might even want to do an ultrasound-"

"Oh, come on!"

"-to see what kind of fluid is in there," Dr. Styles finished. "Ultrasound is the best way to examine it; an MRI might not pick up anything."

"Nate…thank you," said Stephen to his friend.

"Don't worry, Stephen. We'll get to the bottom of this."

_**Doot…deet…doot…deet…**_

The Elder stopped again. For the third time, she thought she had sensed the telepathic aura of the young. Walking through the alien streets with the appearance of the dead native, it had taken the Elder a while to be able to filter out the random thoughts of the beings that passed her by in the streets. It had been hard to tell before, but this time she was certain: the young had been moved. And she was now going in the wrong direction.

Before she could resume her quest, however, she heard a loud _whoop_ from behind her. She spun around. One of the natives was getting out of a vehicle. The creature was wearing cloth all of blue – a color seldom seen on the Elder's homeworld – and wearing what appeared to be weapons around its midsection. From that detail, and from the way the other natives scurried to clear a path for the newcomer, the Elder surmised that this was one of this planet's authority figures: maybe not an Elder, but a Soldier, like the kind that stood guard for her own Tribal Council.

The not-Soldier walked up to the Elder and grabbed her arm. "Come along," it said. "I thought by now you would have learned to stay out of this neighborhood. Honestly, we have other things to do than to bust you girls time and time again."

The not-Soldier was dragging her toward the vehicle. The Elder let it, for she saw how the other natives were going out of their way to avoid noticing the scene going on right in front of them, and realized that she would have an opportunity to strike without drawing any more attention to herself once the creature had gotten her inside the vehicle and let down its guard. Then, she would be able to continue her search.

_**Doot…deet…doot…deet…**_

"I've got something!" said Adam, as he jumped up from his seat by one computer and went over to another. Once there, he shut off the audible beeping which had alerted him to a development.

"Hmmm?" asked Lois, only barely looking up from her own screen.

"Yes!" he proclaimed to no one in particular. "My spybot worked! I think I've found our victim!" He typed in some commands.

Lois was now fully interested. "Where is she?" The team had enough faith in House's analysis of the DNA to start referring to their target as a woman.

"Jack was right," Adam said as he continued to type away to get more data. "They didn't go to a hospital near where we chased our Nostrovite. Look: her address on the admittance record matches our initial search zone, but she checked in to a hospital nearly an hour's drive away. Huh, that's odd…" Adam just stared at his screen for a moment.

"What? What's odd?"

"This woman's middle name. It's not a woman's name. In fact…" his voice trailed off.

"Oh, it's probably her maiden name, silly," said Lois, walking over to Mitchell's station to have a look. "That's the custom over here." She looked at the name, and then she fell silent for a moment.

"Oh no," she said quietly. "Oh no no no no no…"

_**Doot…deet…doot…deet…**_

"It's called a 'singularity scalpel.' At least, that's what we called it."

Jack and House stared at the two devices Gwen had laid on the table in front of them. They were nearly identical, black boxy items with a cylindrical tube sticking out the bottom, forcing them to rest on one side. To House, they looked like the hood of an old-style microscope. They reminded Jack of an old-style electronic game he'd had as a kid.

"I had Adam pull these from storage right after we got back from our chase last night," explained Gwen. "He knew exactly what I was talking about; that one comes from Van Statten's collection," she said, pointing to the device on Jack's right. "Van Statten's people had already deduced its potential medical applications."

"Which are?" asked Jack.

"It can surgically remove stuff from inside your body without requiring cutting you open," answered House. "Gwen told us about this thing when it came over in the shipment from Cardiff. A few months before you joined us, Jack."

Bauer picked up the other device, the one Gwen had not pointed out. There were two details that prevented it from being exactly identical to the other singularity scalpel: the finish on it was flat, and not glossy like the other one; plus there were what appeared to be burn marks on one side. Jack realized that the device he was holding in his hands must have survived the bombing of Torchwood Three, and had been shipped over in bulk when Gwen moved her team to LA. He wondered just what other miraculous artifacts were gathering dust in their storage rooms.

"How does it work?" he asked. Surely a device like this could be used to remove tumors, or bullets, or something else just as useful as purging Nostrovite larvae. Why wasn't the Torchwood team utilizing it more often? _Why didn't the first aid kits in the trucks have a 'singularity scalpel' in them?_ Jack thought.

"Not always reliably," said Gwen, and she took the device from him. "If this is not used properly, things can…explode."

Jack was still chewing on that nugget when Lois and Adam rushed into the room. They stopped when they saw Jack. Lois finally went over and, pulling Gwen aside, whispered something into her ear.

"Oh God," said Gwen, though her falling face revealed much more information. She looked at Bauer. "Jack…"

"What?" demanded Jack.

It was Adam who spoke up. "Jack, we found our victim." He handed his data pad to Bauer.

Jack looked at the name displayed: Kim Bauer Barnes.

"She told me she was moving to Chicago," was all Jack Bauer could say, and even then after a good twenty seconds had gone by.

_**Doot…deet…doot…deet…**_


	3. Coincidence

Torchwood LA: Family

Chapter 3: Coincidence

"She said she was moving to Chicago."

Jack sat in the chair opposite Gwen's desk. It was just the two of them. Even Anwen had been given to Lois, so Gwen and Jack could talk.

"Stephen and Kim Barnes," read Gwen from her printout. "Bought a house twelve months ago, in the neighborhood we were in last night. However, all searches on that address return the name Elizabeth Dumbrowksi."

"Let me guess," said Bauer. "Ms. Dumbrowski is a former owner of the house who died ten years ago of natural causes, but now her name is showing as current on all the property, mortgage, and utilities records."

"Well, 1996, and an automobile accident, but yes," confirmed Gwen.

Jack smiled despite himself. "It's the 'former owner' trick. We used to hide safehouses that way at CTU. It's an easier hack to get the records to show a former occupant than to make up a new name." _It's also something Kim would have learned in her first week on the job_, he thought. "It completely defeats a low-level or casual search."

"Like the kind you would have done when you got back to LA," said Gwen.

Jack said nothing at first. "Yeah," he finally admitted, "I was tempted to look for her. But Gwen, she told me they were moving to Chicago, to be with Stephen's family."

Jack thought back to that time, when he was still being held in an "undisclosed location," when the government had been kind enough to let his daughter see him one last time before burying him in that Supermax hole. Kim had not been in the mood to forgive her father, for forcing them to abandon their house in Beverly Hills and go on the run. Or to forgive him for what had almost happened to her daughter in that camp. She hadn't been willing to listen to his explanation of what he had tried to do to save Teri, let alone to forgive him for how he had failed to even locate his granddaughter before the deadline set by the 456 aliens nearly ran out.

"She misdirected me," said Jack, taking in the full extent of Kim's desire to avoid him. "She misdirected me _and_ hid herself." He shook his head.

"Jack…"

"You can't blame her," said Bauer. "I mean, do you know how much her life's been utterly screwed up just because she's Jack Bauer's daughter? From her mom dying to her getting kidnapped, the assassination attempts, the Crisis, and now this."

"Jack, this is not your fault," said Gwen. "It's staggeringly bad luck, to be sure, but it is _not your fault_. And we're going to help her. But I need to know: are you up for this? Is this a distraction? Because I can pull you from this mission. I want you on this, but I need you to be focused. You know that as well as I do."

Jack looked at his boss. "Yeah," he said after a minute. "I can handle it."

"Good," said Gwen. "We roll in ten."

_**Doot…deet…doot…deet…**_

"Guys, we're getting ready to leave," Lois said as she walked in on Greg and Adam in the science lab.

"I know," said House, "but I want to be sure I know how to work this thing before we get there." He was holding one of the singularity scalpels. "Adam, you sure you don't have more detailed notes on this?"

Adam was searching through his laptop. "I'm sure I did, but they seem to have been lost."

House continued looking at the scalpel. Finally, he fished a quarter out of his pocket and, placing it on his desk, he covered it with a paper cup. Taking a deep breath, he flipped a switch on the side of the device and pointed it at the cup. He could see on the scalpel's display screen an image of the coin under the cup. There were crosshairs pointing at the quarter, and an intuitive beeping sound which helped tell him when the device was locked on to something. So when the beeping reached what seemed to be a crescendo, he pressed a button.

Two things happened simultaneously. First, the paper cup burst into flames. Second, the quarter materialized in mid-air and flew at a high rate of speed into the ceiling where it brought down a ceiling tile, which also caught on fire.

As Lois and Adam rushed to stamp out the flames, House put down the scalpel.

"Nobody tell Bauer," he said.

_**Doot…deet…doot…deet…**_

"I am...waiting for my friend," the Nostrovite parroted, not understanding what she was saying, just remembering the sounds another native had uttered. Her answer seemed to satisfy the native who was bothering her, however, as it shrugged its shoulders and went off to pester somebody else with its sheaves of paper and prattle about "insurance paperwork."

The long walk had not been totally fruitless for the Elder. Not only had she been able to confirm that the Young were somewhere in this same building where she was now, she had also had time to master the ability to mimic the shapes of these creatures without having to physically sample them. She was currently taking the form of a native female (she was now able to tell _that_, too) who had randomly crossed her path just a short time earlier. This shape was drawing less attention than the one she had taken earlier, so the Elder was keeping it. The time for the Young to hatch was not imminent, so she was content to sit and wait, here in this building of Healers.

As she sat and tried to remain inconspicuous, the Elder could not help but notice the arrival of the five new natives who bullied their way past the Healers and not-Soldiers guarding the access to the upper level of the building.

_**Doot…deet…doot…deet…**_

"It will be alright, honey," said Stephen Barnes, as he held his wife's hand. "Nate's on the case. He will figure this out."

Kim smiled back at her husband, but any reply she was about to make was cut off, as her attention was drawn by a commotion outside the room.

Stephen heard it too, and stood up to go investigate. Before he could take two steps, however, Nathan Styles appeared, backing into the room and arguing furiously with a short brunette woman.

"You can't be in here!" insisted Nate. "Security!" he yelled.

One of the hospital's security guards came in, along with the other four members of Torchwood Seven. Dr. Styles was upset and gesticulating, but the Torchwood members were unfazed.

"This is a patient's room," repeated Dr. Styles. "This patient is under my care and you are disturbing her."

"Aye," said Gwen. "And, as I said, we're here to help your patient. We're with the Homeland Security Department. We're from Torchwood."

"Dr. Styles, they had badges," the security guard said.

"Torchwood?" asked Stephen, "What's that? I'm familiar with Homeland, and I've never heard of Torchwood."

Gwen nonchalantly flipped her Torchwood badge to the doctor. "Then we're CIA. Or EPA, or the NBA. Take your pick." She plucked her badge back from him. "Honestly, you Yanks are as bad as us when it comes to your alphabet stew of government bureaus," she said, turning to one of her coworkers.

_"Dad?"_ said Kim.

Stephen turned and looked where Kim was staring. His jaw dropped, too.

"Jack! What the hell are you doing here?"

"Stephen, it's all right," said Bauer. "We're here to help Kim."

Stephen pulled away from Bauer's hand on his shoulder. "Shouldn't you be in prison?" He started to unconsciously back away to a spot halfway between his wife and Jack.

Jack winced at his son-in-law's abruptness. "I got pardoned," he said. "I'll explain later. Right now, we need to help Kim."

"Dad, what the _hell_ is going on?" Kim practically screamed at her father. "Why am I like this? What the hell is happening to me? And what _ar_e you doing here?"

"Kim, honey, it's going to be okay," said Jack.

Kim started to try to stand up in her bed, with Nate and the security guard rushing over to try and keep her from doing so. "Are we safe?" she asked. "Is the government going to come after us again? Are we _safe?_"

"Mrs. Barnes," said Gwen, "we _are_ the government. Or at least, we're liaising with your government…the point is, we're here to help."

"It's true," said the guard to Nate. "Paul Martinez was down in the ER – you know, Sherry's husband, the cop?" Nate nodded. "They showed him their badges when they came in. He wouldn't let them up here, till he made a call on his radio." The guard continued talking, though he lowered his voice. "I didn't hear what they said when the call came back, but, whatever this Torchwood is, Paul was _scared._"

Two nurses came in from the hall. One rushed over to Kim's bed and took over for the security guard. The other remained standing just inside the room.

Stephen was too busy shouting at Jack to notice anything else in the room, however. "What about it, Jack?" he yelled. "Are we going to have to go on the run again? What have you done now?" He got back into Jack's personal space. "Who did you kill, Jack? Who is going to be coming after us this time?"

Jack said nothing. He did nothing. It was a dangerous nothing.

"Dr. Barnes," interjected Gwen, when it looked like Jack was about to take some action he would later deeply regret, "your wife has been infected with a virulent strain of bacteria. But we've caught it in time, and we can treat her. So please, we need everybody here to just calm down, and let us help."

"'Calm down?'" said Stephen. "Are you even a doctor? Because you sure as hell don't sound like one."

"She's not," said House. "But I am." He walked right up to Kim's bed, opening the case that contained the singularity scalpel. "Mrs. Barnes, how are you doing?"

"What are you doing?" said Nate when he saw the scalpel. What is that you have there?"

House ignored him. Instead, he spoke to Gwen and Jack, who had both also walked up to Kim's bedside. "The larvae are not quite ready to hatch yet, but soon," he said, after using the scalpel to do a rudimentary scan. "I need to get started now."

"Then do it," ordered Gwen.

"Larvae?" asked Kim, and then she moaned in pain.

Gwen was about to say something comforting, when she noticed an odd smell. It was rank, like a stable. Something about it seemed familiar to her. She turned to say something to Jack, and then noticed the lone nurse at Kim's side.

_Oh, crap, _she thought, as her mind made the connection. She put her hand on her pistol and started to turn around.

The Nostrovite was faster. Exploding from her spot near the door, the Elder was at Kim's bed before anyone could react, standing between House and the real nurse. House spun around and tried to interpose himself between the Nostrovite and his patient, raising the singularity scalpel as a weapon. The Elder struck quickly, knocking House clear across the room. The nurse was too shocked to try to play the hero, but the Nostrovite slashed her down, simply because she was in the way.

Gwen got two shots off before the Elder had turned around. As the creature turned to face her, the Torchwood leader put a third bullet right in the middle of its chest. The impact startled the Nostrovite long enough for Bauer to shoot it twice in the side. Threatened from two directions, its natural camouflage rippling from the shock caused by the gunshots, The Elder let out a threatening hiss and then ran off into the hallway, knocking down Stephen and Adam as Lois fired desperately at its back.

_**Doot…deet…doot…deet…**_

Gwen caught up to Jack as he was firing into the stairwell. They had both raced out of the room after the Nostrovite. She peeked over the railing, but the creature was gone before she could get a look at it.

"Jack! It's gone!"

"Get back to Kim!" Jack said as he reloaded.

"Jack, it's going to be back. It's going to come after Kim," said Gwen.

"I know!" said Jack. "And I want guns around her. I'm going to stop it before it gets to her."

"Jack, you'll never catch it!"

"Gwen, please, protect my daughter!" said Jack, and he was off.

"Dammit!" said Gwen, and then she turned and headed back to her team.

_**Doot…deet…doot…deet…**_

Lois was right there by the door when Gwen returned.

"What happened?" asked the young agent. "I thought the mate was out of the picture."

"Adam?" asked Gwen, with a bit of an edge to her voice.

"The second rift vector was the same as the male Nostrovite's," said Adam, who was standing over by Kim's bed. "The energy level seemed about right for that amount of mass," he added. "I mean, it's possible that the aperture was large enough to open aboveground, but, in terms of probability, well, we couldn't have known…"

"So we assumed," finished Gwen. _I assumed,_ she thought. She marshalled her command instincts once again. "Okay, everyone, we have a Nostrovite out there. They can take the shape of anyone. Did everyone smell that smell? Like manure?" she asked, sweeping her eyes to take in Lois and Adam's nods. "That's our tell. Failing that, challenge anyone who comes through that door. Ask them their name, birthdate, whatever: these things aren't big talkers, either."

"Uh, Gwen…" Adam started to say.

"What happened to Greg?" Gwen asked, noticing for the first time that House was laying on a gurney in the corner, being attended to by Dr. Barnes. She rushed over.

"Your friend has a probable concussion," said Stephen. "We need to get him out of here as soon as possible." He took off his stethoscope looked at Gwen. "What the hell was that thing? What is going on? And what does it have to do with my wife?"

Gwen turned to him. "It's an alien being. It's called a Nostrovite."

"An alien?" asked Stephen. "You mean it's from…" he pointed up.

"Yes," said Gwen. _One good thing about the 456 Crisis,_ she thought bitterly: _ the near total abolishment of skepticism._ She turned to Kim. "You get bitten recently? By something that looked like a person, but now you're not so sure?" Kim's wide-eyed stare answered her question. "It was the father, and it implanted it's eggs in you. You're not pregnant, but, pretty soon, those eggs are going to hatch."

"And that was the mother that attacked us?" asked Stephen.

"No, not the mother," said Gwen after giving the matter a little thought. "No mother would have run off that easily if her children were in danger." She missed the look that Stephen and Kim shared.

"Two Nostrovites must have come through in the second rift!" said Adam. "That would explain it: one didn't survive the passage, but one did." The excitement at his new theory left his voice. "Uh, Gwen…" he said again.

"But that's why we're here," said Gwen. She glanced over at House. "We have a device that can remove the Nostrovite larvae from Kim, safely…"

"Um, Gwen," said Adam again, this time more insistently, "we have a slight problem with that…"

Gwen spun around, about to tell Adam how much she hated being cut off, when she saw that he was holding in his hands a very good reason for trying to interrupt her. Two of them, in fact: the two halves of the singularity scalpel, not at all looking like they were meant to have broken apart.

"Oh," she said.

_**Doot…deet…doot…deet…**_


	4. It Would Be Called '12'

Torchwood LA: Family

Chapter 4: …It Would Be Called '12'

"Why _would_ he have brought the other one?" asked Lois. She and Gwen were looking at the pieces of the singularity scalpel with Adam. "We've never known these things to break!"

Gwen just fumed. She wanted to be angry at someone. Adam was a convenient target, but she knew she couldn't really blame anyone for this latest setback, not even herself.

"Damn!" she exclaimed.

Any further recriminations were cut off by the return of Dr. Styles and several of the security staff.

"What in hell was that?" asked Dr. Styles.

"Alien," said Stephen with a casual shrug of his shoulders, as if he saw that sort of thing every day.

While Dr. Styles just stared open-mouthed, Dr. House moaned and began moving around on his gurney. Gwen rushed over to her chief of medicine.

"Greg? Greg?" she called hopefully, as House began to come to. "Greg, how are you? How are you feeling? Can you hear me?"

"Yes." House's eyes were open, and he stated at Gwen for a short while. "And I can see you, too. _Both_ of you. Double vision." He turned and addressed some imaginary point immediately to Gwen's right. "Also, you're both really, really blurry right now." Stephen came back to attend to the Torchwood doctor, Gwen moving aside to allow him to work.

The arrival of a policeman and another security guard caught Gwen's attention. She recognized the cop from downstairs. "Officer Martinez," she said, "how many more policemen are there in this building right now?"

"Just one, ma'am," said the officer. "My partner. He's on his way up here now." He checked his radio. "There's more units on their way…"

"No!" said Gwen. "Have the incoming units blockade this building. No one gets in or out." She turned to one of the security guards. "You. Can you organize a lockdown of this hospital?"

"Yes," said the man, the guard who had been in the room when the Nostrovite had attacked. Understandably, he still seemed very much shaken by everything that had happened.

"A lockdown?" said Nathan Styles. "With that thing out there? We should be evacuating the building right now!"

"It's a female protecting young," said Gwen. "It's not going to take hostages; it's going to come straight at Kim here again. Best if we don't have people in the hallways or stairwells when that happens." She turned back to the security guard. "Lock it down. Tell everyone to stay where they are."

The guard and two of his colleagues ran off to do just that. Gwen double checked her ammo status, then walked over to speak quietly with the rest of her team as Martinez' partner came into the room.

"We're too short on firepower here," Gwen stated. She turned to Adam. "Adam," she asked, nodding at the two police officers, "how long do you think it would take these two coppers to break into the truck, grab a couple of our machine guns, and get back up here?"

"Too long," Adam said. "They'll never get past the truck's anti-theft features with a bloody slim-jim." He looked surprised at Gwen's suggestion. "Wait. Why do the police need to break into our truck? Why can't _we_ just go get our guns?"

"Because Bauer drove," said Gwen, her hand resting on the outside of the empty pants pocket where she usually put her keys. "And if I send you out to the parking lot to hack the locks, we'll be down one shooter when the Nostrovite comes back. Plus, I'd be putting you at risk if it catches you on the stairwell."

"Where _is_ Jack?" asked Stephen, overhearing part of the conversation as he made his way back to Kim's side.

"He went off after the Nostrovite on his own," said Gwen, not without a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"That's my dad!" said Kim, sarcastically pumping a fist in the air, and then settling back into her bed after the gesture caused her a small amount of pain.

"What about them?" asked Lois, pointing to the lone hospital security guard left in the room. "Can we ask them to help?"

"Tasers," said Gwen. "They only have tasers." She shook her head. "Besides, they're just civilians. I'm not even sure I'm comfortable with asking trained officers like Martinez there to pad our human shield, let alone police academy dropouts who've never been in a firefight outside of _Grand Theft Auto_."

Kim moaned.

"She's close," said Gwen.

"Better let me get on the scalpel, then," said House, prompting the other Torchwood members to look at each other.

_**Doot…deet…doot…deet…**_

Jack stopped, hiding behind a corner. He switched out the empty magazine in his gun for a fresh one. Though he seriously doubted that seventeen more bullets would make a difference against the Nostrovite's tough hide.

_At least I hurt it_, Jack thought, looking at the spots of black blood on the basement's concrete floor. Not hearing any sounds of the creature, Jack got into a tactical crouch and cleared the corner. He stopped short when he saw the two bodies: a maintenance man and a security guard, both apparently killed and thrown aside by the Nostrovite. A closer inspection confirmed that the creature had indeed only slashed the two unfortunate men to death, and not tried to eat them. _They probably surprised it_, Jack thought. The creature had definitely surprised them; the security guard had not even had time to draw his taser.

A crashing sound drew Jack's attention. He looked up and ran to the swinging doors at the far wall, taking up a position next to them. He risked a peek through the glass, but couldn't see anything other than another set of swinging doors at another far wall. The sound had seemed to come from far away, Jack realized, so it was likely that the creature had gone ahead through those doors.

Bauer leaned back against the wall. Doing so, he caught sight of an emergency evacuation map for the level. He studied the map for a moment, and was relieved to see that there were no exits in the direction that the Nostrovite had run; no matter how far it had gone, it would eventually have to come back the same way to get out of the basement. It would have to get past him.

Having decided that it was where he would have to make his stand, Jack began to examine the room around him more closely. Pipes and valves, gone rusty from disuse, lined the wall to his right. Jack realized that this room must have once been the hospital's laundry room, with the valves being the hookups for washing machines. Though now, with the hospital long since having farmed out their laundry to a linens contractor, it appeared to have been turned into a maintenance office. A desk under the emergency map held work orders and schedules, and shelves and cabinets full of tools and building materials stood to the left of the desk. There were about a dozen hospital gurneys, IV stands, and other large pieces of medical equipment in various stages of disrepair next to the shelves. He saw rubber chemical protection gear hanging from the wall under an electrical junction box. Bauer scratched his head as he contemplated his next move.

_**Doot… deet… doot… deet…**_

"It'll work," said Gwen, putting her cell phone away. She went over to Kim. "Hey, how are you feeling?" she asked.

"How do you think?" said Kim. She groaned in pain. "Oh! I am going to kill my dad!" she said. "My whole life, there's been like this big target on my back that says, 'Strike here to get at Jack Bauer.' First, it was the time I was kidnapped. Then the hired killers. Then we had to go on the run like fugitives because of what he did in New York…"

"Kim," said Gwen, "you can't blame your father for this. He had nothing to do with that Nostrovite finding you: that was random chance. In fact, though I hate to admit it, if you _weren't_ Jack's daughter, we probably wouldn't have responded as quickly, and in such force, as we did."

"Yeah, and how's that working out?" asked Stephen, earning himself a venomous glare from Gwen.

"My life is a mess," continued Kim, "because of what my dad does. Every time. And when we _finally_ seemed to have settled back into some sense of normality, then I learn Dad's gone and pissed off the Klingons, and now _they_ want him dead, too."

"Look, I know this is rough for you," Gwen began.

"Oh, really?!" Kim practically shouted. "You 'know?' How can you possibly know what I'm going through right now?" she asked, pointing at her distended abdomen. "You have no idea what this is like!"

"TRY HAVING IT HAPPEN ON YOUR WEDDING DAY!" Gwen shouted back. "With all your family thinking you're pregnant, because that's what you had to tell them, and they already think Rhys isn't good enough for you! You think you've got it bad? You have no idea what _that_ is like! So stop complaining!"

The entire room was silent. Even Kim was staring open mouthed at Gwen. Gwen just stalked over to Adam and Lois, who immediately busied themselves in whatever they could quickly find to busy themselves in.

_**Doot…deet…doot…deet…**_

The Elder awoke with a start. She didn't remember falling asleep, but she quickly ascertained with her psychic senses that she had not been out for long. She looked down at the wounds on her body; they weren't healed, but at least they had scarred over and stopped bleeding. That the healing reflex had caused her to temporarily lose consciousness while it did what little it had done to staunch the minor wounds was a consequence of her advanced age, the Nostrovite thought ruefully. But she knew that it was good to have taken the time to heal now, so that she would be in the best shape possible to go back and rescue the young.

Reaching out psychically again, the Elder probed ahead of herself as she cautiously walked back through the rooms she had passed through earlier. She could sense the panic of the natives on the levels above her; she would have an easy time of fighting her way back to where the young were, if it came to that.

It was when she entered the next room and saw that they were not there that the Elder remembered the two natives she had dispatched. She was instantly alert when she saw the blood and other indications of the corpses having been dragged away, but she could not discern where they had been dragged to. She wasn't hungry, but she was wary. She knew someone was chasing her: what she could not figure out was why that native had taken her kills. This mystery so occupied her thoughts that it took her a few moments to realize a puddle of water had formed around her feet. She looked down at the water, and at the wall where she saw it was pouring out of one of those metal tubes she had seen all over this level. The Elder just had time to have the epiphany that the creatures of this world used metal to conduct water, the same way as her people used wooden chutes, when the pain made everything go white.

* * *

><p>Bauer made sure to stay back from the business end of the live power cable after he'd tossed it into the water, even though he was wearing rubber boots. The electricity had made the Nostrovite go down, just as he'd thought it would. He wasn't sure how long it would stay down, so he kicked over the shelving unit, trapping the creature underneath it. Then he cut the power and quickly rushed over to the Nostrovite's head, which was poking out from under the shelves. He pulled out his gun, jammed it into the Nostrovite's mouth, and fired.<p>

Under normal circumstances, Jack knew, bending over someone and taking a head shot, especially over a concrete floor, was insanely reckless: the explosive gasses from the muzzle blast (which do more of the damage in shots at that range than the bullet itself) would likely blow the victim's head clean off, leaving the bullet and/or pieces of the floor free to ricochet straight back up at the shooter. But this time, Jack had bet that the Nostrovite's tough hide would work in his favor, and he was rewarded: the round did not exit. Jack fired seven more times, each shot further pulping the Nostrovite's brain against the inside of it's skull, until the alien creature stopped squirming under the shelves.

Jack stopped shooting and watched the Nostrovite for signs of movement. There were none, so he got up to retrieve the fire ax he had set aside earlier. By the time he came back, the Nostrovite's camouflage was fading.

"So that's what you look like," said Bauer, as he swung the axe home.

_**Doot…deet…doot…deet…**_

"No, I swear," insisted Lois. "The electricity flickered. About a minute ago. And I think it was doing it before, too. Didn't anyone else notice?"

Gwen wasn't paying her any attention. Instead, she _shushed_ her. "Did you hear something?" she asked.

"I didn't hear anything," said House, and then he was cut off by one of Kim's moans. "Well, except that," he added.

Kim moaned in pain again, this time loudly enough to be clearly heard by everyone in the room.

"We have to do something!" said Stephen. He stood up and started walking toward the door. "Nate, do we have any patients in chemo on this floor?"

"That won't work," said Gwen. "The larvae will just shrug off the drugs. Alien biology. We thought of that with me." She walked over to Stephen. "Our best bet is the scalpel."

"We could operate on her here!" shouted Stephen. "With our equipment. We can't just keep waiting for –"

"Jack!" said Lois, the relief evident in her voice, as Jack Bauer was suddenly standing in the doorways. He looked like he'd been through a rough fight, but the other Torchwood members were all glad to see him. Except for one, who was not taking any chances.

"Hold it right there, Jack," said Adam. He was still pointing his gun at Bauer. "How do we know you're really Jack? Tell us something the Nostrovite wouldn't know." The other Torchwood members all froze, waiting to see whether Adam's point was valid.

"Well," said Bauer, "the Nostrovite wouldn't know the name of the website I caught you looking at down in the computer lab –"

"It's him," said Adam, holstering his weapon. He joined Gwen and Lois in a group rush over to Bauer, but he did not join in the group hug. Then he and Lois stepped back, while Gwen remained with Bauer.

"The Nostrovite. Is it dead?" she asked.

"Yes," said Bauer, then he addressed the room: "Nobody go in the basement."

Another groan from Kim interrupted Torchwood Seven's impromptu reunion. Jack rushed over to her side.

"Is she alright? Kim? Why aren't the larvae out yet?" he asked. "Where's that scalpel?"

"There's been a slight mishap with that," said House, and he showed Bauer the two halves of the broken singularity scalpel before explaining what had happened. "I'm sorry."

"What are we going to do?" asked Bauer, as he looked over at his daughter. "How the hell are we supposed to get these things out of her without the scalpel?"

"What? This?" said a new voice. Everyone turned to the doorway.

There stood Rhys Williams. He was carrying a backpack in each hand and wearing an off-the-rack suit with shoes that were starting to look worn. He was also wearing a baby papoose over the suit, with Anwen napping comfortably even as said papoose swung from side to side when Rhys hefted one of the backpacks and planted it on the ground in front of him. He reached down and unzipped the top of it, allowing everyone to see the second singularity scalpel inside.

"Gwen? This is the one you meant, right hon?"

_**Doot…deet…doot…deet…**_


	5. A Little Help

Torchwood LA: Family

Chapter 5: A Little Help

_Forty minutes earlier…_

"Better let me get on the scalpel, then," said House, prompting the other Torchwood members to look at each other.

Adam rolled his eyes. "…Fine. I'll tell him," he said, and he began walking over to House.

"Gwen, maybe we _should_ try sending some of these men down to our truck," said Lois, "if you don't think they'll be useful in a firefight." She gestured to the police and security guards. "You said yourself we need more guns."

"It doesn't matter how many guns we have," said Gwen. "We could have a million guns. We _need_ that other scalpel. And it's back at the hub."

"Maybe if we send someone," said Lois, then she had a change of heart. "No, wait, that won't do…it took us what, half an hour to get here? Double that, here and back, and at this time of day…"

Suddenly Gwen whirled on her and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Lois! That's genius!" she said with an excited look on her face. Gwen hurriedly walked away from the startled Lois, pulled out her cellphone, and hit a number on speed dial. She put the phone up to her ear, and only had to wait a moment before the call was picked up.

"Hey, Rhys!" she said. "Shut up and listen…"

_In the present…_

"I didn't know which bullets went with which guns," said Rhys, "so I grabbed all different kinds." There was an audible clinking sound as he put down the second backpack. The barrels of two submachine guns could be seen sticking out the top of the pack, and the label on a box of 9mm shells could be seen through the pack's fabric in one of the side pockets.

"We're fine with the guns," said Gwen as she took Anwen out of her papoose. "Adam," she directed, "get that scalpel over to Greg."

Jack beat the young Torchwood agent to it, as he grabbed the scalpel, practically yanking it out of the pack and hustling over to Kim's side, where House was setting up.

"Kim, it's going to be okay," said Bauer, as he handed the scalpel to the doctor. "We're going to get those things out of you."

Kim just grunted. House turned on the scalpel and the device began to make a low beeping noise. He held it up to Kim, and the beeping began to accelerate. House pulled the device back, and it continued to beep rapidly.

"Greg!" Bauer nearly shouted, as the doctor was clearly looking worried. "What's it doing? What's that beeping mean?"

"Oh, Greg?" said Rhys, as he was taking off his jacket and handing it to Gwen. "You've got to let it guide you. Here," he said, as he rolled up his shirtsleeves and walked over to House, "let me show you."

Rhys took the scalpel from House. "Hello," he looked down and said to Kim, with a cheery smile on his face, "I'm Rhys." He held the scalpel out over Kim's stomach like a divining rod, then turned to House. "It's got an AI. You know how when you hook a digital camera up to your computer, it knows what snaps it's already downloaded?" Rhys said. "It's like that." He turned back to Kim and looked through the scalpel's viewer, and pressed a button. There was the sound of a soft _zap_, followed by a gasp from Kim. But instead of crying out in pain, Kim looked down at her abdomen in surprise, with the lessening of her discomfort obvious on her face.

"Kim?" asked Stephen. He knelt by her side, squeezing her left hand.

"It feels not as tight, right there," said Kim, pointing to where Rhys had just been aiming the scalpel. Rhys pointed the scalpel at another spot on her abdomen, and repeated the process. Kim winced, but again, instead of crying out or grunting, she let out an eased breath, signaling that the scalpel had removed another of the pain-causing larvae. All the while, the beeping from the scalpel had slowed to a steady pulse of sound, with the volume of the beeps dropped, as well.

"Just let me and Dr. Greg here do our thing," said Rhys soothingly, "and everything will be alright."

Working together, it took the two of them just over twenty minutes to get all of the larvae out of Kim's body, with House gradually taking over guiding the scalpel from Rhys until he was the one in control of the instrument. He used it to scan Kim once more, and then pronounced her clear of the alien infestation. Her belly had gradually returned to normal size; she no longer looked eight months pregnant. She definitely looked relieved.

Through all this, Jack had been standing a few feet back, allowing House and Rhys to move about and do their work. He now stepped forward.

"She's going to be okay, right?" he asked.

"She'll be fine," said House, as he went to put the new scalpel away. "She just needs some rest." The Torchwood doctor looked over at Stephen and then winked at Rhys, who took the hint and began to walk away with him.

"Rhys?" said Kim, causing Rhys to stop and come back.

"Yes?" he said.

"…Thank you," said Kim, with Stephen vigorously nodding his concurrence.

Rhys just smiled back and began to walk away again. As he turned, for a moment, his eyes locked with Bauer's. Neither man moved. Then Rhys just smiled again, nodded once curtly, and continued turning and walking away.

_**Doot…deet…doot…deet…**_

Stephen and Nate had wanted to run some standard medical tests on Kim, to be sure that the larvae were indeed out of her system, even though House had shown them both the scans he'd taken with the singularity scalpel. Getting confirmation from the lab that there was an open slot for the MRI machine, however, was taking longer than the Nostrov-ectomy itself had taken. Kim was still in her gurney.

Jack was sitting next to her. He hadn't said a word since Rhys and House had finished their procedure.

Finally, Kim looked over at her dad. "So, you're a man in black now?"

"I fought against assassination attempts, a nuclear bomb plot, bioweapons, a plot to turn every nuclear power plant in the countryinto a bomb…" said Bauer. "After that, storming the alien ship from _Independence Day_ seemed to be the next logical step." He gave Kim a what-are-you-gonna-do shrug. "But don't let Gwen hear you say 'man in black,'" he added, jerking a thumb in his boss's direction. "She goes apeshit when people call us that."

Kim said nothing, and then let out a quick laugh that wouldn't stop. Jack started laughing a little, too, and his laugh grew until father and daughter were laughing together.

"Dad!" said Kim, as she reached over and threw a hug around Jack.

"Kim, I am so sorry about Texas," said Jack. "I tried to find Teri! I did!" he said, hugging his daughter back. He could feel all the horror, all the helplessness he had felt at Camp Bravo starting to come back to him.

"Dad," said Kim again, "it's okay. I forgive you." She hugged Jack again, and wiped tears from her eyes. "I've had a lot of time to think about what I said that day," she said, referring to the last time they had met, when she had blamed Jack for Teri almost being taken by the 456. "It wasn't your fault."

Jack had to wipe away tears, too: he was overjoyed that even if he died tomorrow, his last memory of his daughter would no longer be her telling him she wished he was dead.

Their moment was interrupted by Adam.

"Hey, Lois! You were right!" Mitchell said, coming into the room. With the truck's keys recovered, Gwen had sent the young agent down to the Torchwood vehicle. He returned, toting a cooler bag holding about ten bottles of water. Rhys was in tow, having been drafted to help, and he was carrying an identical bag. No one noticed that about half of the bottles in the bags had a piece of light blue tape wrapped around their necks.

"Lois!" Adam said again. "The electricity _is_ out! To the whole north side of the building." He set down his bag. "I heard an administrator talking. They've had to turn on the emergency generators."

"Huh, that's weird," said Jack, looking around at everyone. "Nobody go in the basement," he repeated.

"What is this, a picnic?" asked Nate, looking at the bottled water.

"It's for Ms. Barnes," said Gwen. "You said she needed to hydrate." She took a bottle out of one of the bags and handed it to Dr. Styles. "You look thirsty, too. Want some?"

"We have water here," said Nate, and he walked off in a huff, but not before taking the bottle from Gwen. Had he been paying attention, he would have noted the blue tape.

Bauer had grabbed a pair of bottles from the bags, and he handed them to Kim and Stephen. Kim was sitting up.

"So, what happens now?" she asked. "Aliens in an LA hospital. Isn't that going to draw attention to you?"

"We clean up well," said Jack.

Kim took a swig of water and was about to ask something else, when she happened to look to her right. She saw Nate Styles lying on the ground. She started, but then she saw his chest rising and falling, signifying that he was just unconscious. She looked further around the room, and saw Paul Martinez sitting on a stool, his head lolling to one side as he snored. The security guards and other hospital personnel who had been in the room with them were in a similar state of repose at various spots on the floor, with the members of Torchwood – and Rhys – milling about them, putting pillows under the sleepers' heads and otherwise making sure they were resting comfortably. Next to each unconscious person was a half-empty bottle of water, with blue tape around the neck.

Kim looked down in panic. Fortunately, her water bottle did not have blue tape on it.

"If her family gets to remember the truth about Torchwood," said Jack, nodding in Rhys' direction, "then so does _mine_." He had a defiant look on his face as he stared straight at Gwen. For her part, Gwen was busy directing the others in the cleanup effort, and not paying attention to Jack. He quickly explained about retcon to Kim and Stephen.

"Hey!" said Stephen. He was looking down at his water bottle. He hadn't opened it yet, but there was blue tape around the neck. He threw it down, then looked plaintively at Kim. "He gave that to me!" he said, pointing at Bauer.

Jack just stared at Stephen for a moment, and then turned back to his daughter. "Have you got any sick days left?" Jack asked her. His tone was all business.

"Yeah," said Kim. She could tell her dad was working on a cover story, so she slipped into CTU mode, too.

"Take one tomorrow. In fact, take two. Stephen," he said, turning to his son-in-law. "I need you to come up with a real medical condition that could explain Kim's symptoms," he said, using his hands to suggest the shape of a pregnant woman.

"Hmm," said Stephen, "that might be tough. It's a good thing we were working on _exactly that_ right before you arrived!" he said sarcastically.

Jack ignored his outburst. "Tell it to Kim, and practice your story together. Kim, did anyone besides the people in this room see you? Anyone who knows you?"

"The receptionist downstairs," said Kim, "and a couple of the nurses. Other than that, Stephen and I really don't socialize with each other's work friends."

Jack pulled out his phone and made a note, which he emailed to Gwen. "Anyone see you at home? Neighbors?"

"The neighbors didn't see us," said Stephen. "I didn't want anyone to see Kim and start talking, so I pulled the car into the garage before she got in."

Jack nodded approvingly, in spite of himself. "And what about Teri?"

"_Dad!"_ Kim raised her voice. "She's your granddaughter, for God's sake!"

"I'm not going to retcon Teri!" said Jack. "She's six; she thinks _The Lion King_ is real."

"She's grown out of that," said Kim, her anger placated.

"I meant," continued Jack, "where is she staying right now?"

"With Kevin and Judy," said Stephen, "across the street from us. They didn't see Kim; I brought Teri over. Told them Kim was sick."

Bauer took down the names, and saved them in a file for further surveillance. He also had the random thought that "Meathead" would make an excellent code name for Stephen, when he wrote up his report.

"Alright," said Gwen, coming over, "it looks like we've got everything contained, or will have it shortly," she said. She gave Kim and Stephen the once over, and then looked at Jack, expectantly.

Jack stared back at her. After half a minute, Gwen just shrugged and continued on. "Jack, can you finish up here? I've got to take the baby home," she jerked a thumb back at Rhys, who was putting Anwen back in her papoose. "And Anwen." She smiled, causing Jack to grunt a quick laugh.

"Yeah, I can get it, Gwen," said Jack. He looked around the room. "We might have to bring in the cleanup team."

"Fine," said Gwen, "but don't call it a 'terrorist attack' this time. We've worn that one a little bit thin, don't you think?" She winked at him. "Nice to have met you," she said to Kim and Stephen, and she shook both of their hands. She then walked over to where Rhys was waiting. "Come on, Meathead," she said, taking his arm as they walked out the door, with Jack and his family all standing and watching them go.

_**Doot…deet…doot…deet…**_


	6. Perspective

Torchwood LA: Family

Chapter 6: Perspective

_One week later…_

Jack Bauer checked his cellphone to read the message from Gwen. He grunted a laugh, then pocketed the phone. He continued sitting on the bench, watching the day care workers try to corral their charges in the late afternoon sun, only looking up when he heard someone walk up next to him.

"Hey," said Rhys, sitting down. He was still wearing his deliveryman's uniform. "First day," he said proudly. "Finished my run early, so I could pick up Annie," he said, then looked over to where Jack was looking. "Please be sure to tell Stephen and Kim thanks for helping us find this place," he pointed at the day care facility.

Jack nodded. "Yeah," he said, "Kim said she was really happy with it when she had Teri here."

The two men sat for a while, and then Rhys broke the silence. "Look, Jack," he said, "I'm not trying to be a part of Torchwood. I don't _want_ to be a part of that life. That's too dangerous for me." He looked around, and then moved forward so that he was looking eye to eye with Bauer. "All I want, is to not be treated like some child whenever I have to come by and see Gwen. And stop calling me 'the civilian.' My name is Rhys!" He sat back. "My name is Rhys Williams, and I know the truth about what my wife does every day. Accept it and get over it."

Jack looked at Rhys for a long moment. "My wife died because of this life, Rhys," he began. "She didn't want to be a part of it, either. But it still found her, and killed her. And it nearly killed my daughter." He looked away. "When I took this job for Gwen, I swore to myself I would not let that happen to her." He looked back at Rhys. "If it seems like I'm trying to keep you away from Torchwood, then yes, I am. I'm trying to protect you and Anwen. Because I know what losing those close to you does, and I don't want to see that happen to Gwen."

Bauer got up and walked away, leaving Rhys to sit and wait for his daughter.

_**Doot…deet…doot…deet…**_


End file.
